Nitrogen-containing compounds including isothioureas, guanidines, amidines and amides are extremely important in the fields of pharmaceutical or agricultural synthesis. Typical techniques used for preparing these compounds from amines in a single step are shown below.
No technique is known to allow the direct synthesis of isothioureas from amines and thiocyanates.
A technique for synthesizing guanidines from amines and cyanamides is known from J. Med. Chem., 1996, 39, 4017, which reports reaction conditions involving heating the reaction mixture to 180° C. in concentrated hydrochloric acid.
A technique for synthesizing amidines from amines and nitrites is known from Chem. Pharm. Bull., 1997, 45, 987, which reports reaction conditions involving heating the reaction mixture to 150° C. in the presence of aluminum chloride.
A technique for synthesizing amides from amines and esters is known from Tetrahedron Lett., 1996, 37, 2757, which reports the use of trimethylaluminum for the synthesis. Also, another synthesis technique using a silylating agent is known from Tetrahedron Lett., 1991, 32, 3407, which reports the use of trimethylsilyl chloride for the synthesis. However, in these techniques, the silylating agent is used for the protection of other functional groups and does not appear to enhance the synthesis reaction because the esters to be amidated are reactive enough to easily react with the amines in the absence of the silylating agent. It is therefore impossible to predict from these techniques that the silylating agent enhances the amidation reaction of less reactive esters. Still another technique using tin bishexamethylsilylamide is known from J. Org. Chem., 1992, 57, 6101. However, this technique is based on a concept distinct from that of the synthesis reaction under consideration because the active species is tin.
These conventional techniques require the use of highly reactive metal compounds and/or extreme reaction conditions for the direct synthesis of nitrogen-containing compounds (e.g., isothioureas, guanidines, amidines, amides) from amines. Such conventional techniques are therefore unable to have a wide range of applications and have been unsuitable for large-scale synthesis in terms of running costs, energy consumption and environmental impact. In view of the foregoing, there has been a demand to develop a preparation method that is available for a wider range of applications and that allows the efficient preparation of nitrogen-containing compounds including isothioureas, guanidines, amidines and amides under mild reaction conditions.